The present invention is in the general field of telephony including multimedia communications. The present invention has particular application to methods and apparatus for anticipating the needs of clients of a communication center having events waiting in a communication center queue by interacting directly with the queue and planning communication resource availability accordingly, preferably using Instant Message Presence Protocol (IMPP) messaging.
In the field of telephony communication, there have been many improvements in technology over the years that have contributed to more efficient use of telephone communication within hosted call-center environments. Most of these improvements involve integrating the telephones and switching systems in such call centers with computer hardware and software adapted for, among other things, better routing of telephone calls, faster delivery of telephone calls and associated information, and improved service with regard to client satisfaction. Such computer-enhanced telephony is known in the art as computer-telephony integration (CTI).
Generally speaking, CTI implementations of various design and purpose are implemented both within individual call-centers and, in some cases, at the telephone network level. For example, processors running CTI software applications may be linked to telephone switches, service control points (SCP), and network entry points within a public or private telephone network. At the call-center level, CTI-enhanced processors, data servers, transaction servers, and the like, are linked to telephone switches and, in some cases, to similar CTI hardware at the network level, often by a dedicated digital link. CTI processors and other hardware within a call-center is commonly referred to as customer premises equipment (CPE). It is the CTI processor and application software is such centers that provides computer enhancement to a call center.
In a CTI-enhanced call center, telephones at agent stations are connected to a central telephony switching apparatus, such as an automatic call distributor (ACD) switch or a private branch exchange (PBX). The agent stations may also be equipped with computer terminals such as personal computer/video display units (PC/VDU) so that agents manning such stations may have access to stored data as well as being linked to incoming callers by telephone equipment. Such stations may be interconnected through the PC VDU by a local area network (LAN). One or more data or transaction servers may also be connected to the LAN that interconnects agent stations. The LAN is, in turn, typically connected to the CTI processor, which is connected to the call switching apparatus of the call center.
In recent years, advances in computer technology, telephony equipment, and infrastructure have provided many opportunities for improving telephone service in publicly switched and private telephone intelligent networks. Similarly, development of a separate information and data network known as the Internet, together with advances in computer hardware and software have led to a new multimedia telephone system known in the art by several names. In this new systemology, telephone calls are simulated by multimedia computer equipment, and data, such as audio data, is transmitted over data networks as data packets. In this system the broad term used to describe such computer-simulated telephony is Data Network Telephony (DNT).
Recent improvements to available technologies associated with the transmission and reception of data packets during real-time DNT communication have enabled companies to successfully add DNT, principally IPNT capabilities to existing CTI call centers. Such improvements, as described herein and known-to the inventor, include methods for guaranteeing available bandwidth or quality of service (QOS) for a transaction, improved mechanisms for organizing, coding, compressing, and carrying data more efficiently using less bandwidth, and methods and apparatus for intelligently replacing lost data via using voice supplementation methods and enhanced buffering capabilities.
In addition to Internet protocol (IPNT) calls, a DNT center may also share other forms of media with customers accessing the system through their computers. E-mails, video mails, fax, file share, file transfer, video calls, and so forth are some of the other forms of media, which may be used. This capability of handling varied media leads to the term multimedia communications center. A multimedia communications center may be a combination CTI and DNT center, or may be a DNT center capable of receiving COST calls and converting them to a digital DNT format. The term communication center will replace the term call center hereinafter in this specification when referring to multi-media capabilities.
In systems known to the inventors, incoming IPNT calls are processed and routed within an IPNT-capable communication center in much the same way as COST calls are routed in a CTI-enhanced call-center, using similar or identical routing rules, waiting queues, and so on, aside from the fact that there are two separate networks involved. Communication centers having both CTI and IPNT capability utilize LAN-connected agent-stations with each station having a telephony-switch-connected headset or phone, and a PC connected, in most cases via LAN, to the network carrying the IPNT calls. Therefore, in most cases, IPNT calls are routed to the agent""s PC while conventional telephony calls are routed to the agent""s conventional telephone or headset.
A network-based system known to the inventor enables users of the system to obtain current agent-status information related to agents of an information-source facility connected to the network before initiating contact with the agent or agents of the information-source facility. The system comprises a status-server node connected to the information-source facility (communication center) and to the network, an interface-server node connected to the status node and to the network, the status-server node accessible to the interface node, a user-operated network-capable appliance connected to the network, the interface node accessible to the network-capable appliance, and a software application distributed on at least the status and interface server nodes, the software application enabling distribution of the agent-status information to the user-operated appliance. In some embodiments the system uses IMPP-IETF RFC 2778 protocol.
The user operating the network-capable appliance connects to the network and accesses the interfacing server node and requests the agent-status information, the agent-status information is then accessed from the status server node connected to the communication center by the interfacing server node and delivered to the requesting user over the operating network. Such a system saves phone costs for customers and/or agents as well as reduces utilization requirements of communication-center interface technologies such as IVR technology.
The network-based system described above can, in one aspect, enable communication center agents using the system to obtain current status information related to clients of an information-source facility connected to the network in order to optimize callback connection success from the agents to the monitored clients. The capability is incorporated as an enhancement to the system providing agent status information to clients as described further above.
The system comprises a status-server node connected to the information-source facility (communication center) and to the network, an interface server node connected to the status node and to the network, the interface node accessible to the status server node, a user-operated network-capable appliance connected to the network, the interface node accessible to the network-capable appliance, and a software application distributed on at least the status and interface server nodes, the software application enabling distribution of the client-status information to the agent-operated appliance.
An agent operating the network-capable appliance monitors the network and accesses the status server node and requests the client-status information, the client-status information is then accessed from the interface server node by the status server node and delivered to the requesting agent over the operating network. Such a system saves agent time and communication costs and reduces utilization requirements for communication center interface technologies by automatically providing agents with client real-time activity prior to initiation of service contact.
The above-described system uses a presence protocol such as IMMP-IETF RFC 2778 in order to communicate both the agent status information to a requesting client and to communicate active client status to a requesting agent. In some cases, a third party providing a hosting server within the operating network, which in that case would be the Internet network, hosts the system.
According to another aspect of the above-described system, an application is provided for enabling a client to interact with communication-center resources using IMPP. The application has an interactive client interface component operable by the client for posting client data and for receiving and displaying agent and interaction data from the communication center, a brokering component for managing client and communication center data and communication, and a status monitoring and reporting component for monitoring and reporting communication center and client status. The application is characterized in that a client using the user interface is enabled to access and alter communication center data, and also to initiate live interaction with the communication center.
While presence information is flexible and useful for reporting information about agents to clients and about clients to agents, it has occurred to the inventors that there also exists an opportunity for using such a presence protocol for managing the communication center itself in terms of internal policy, member-to-member communication within the center whether agent-to-agent, machine-to-machine, agent-to-machine, or machine-to-agent.
A presence monitoring and reporting application is known to the inventors and is used in a multimedia communication-center environment to report presence information of networked entities in real time. The application includes a software agent for generating a presence information model; a data store for storing presence information tuples; and a monitor for detecting presence information updates and for synchronizing the updates with information in the data store. In a preferred embodiment the application is deployed and integrated to a communication center infrastructure wherein any given one or more of the entities may singularly or in plural spawn one or more agents whereupon the agents each spawn a container that is populated with current targeted presence and state information in most recent updated form and wherein the updates are synchronized with data in the data store.
It is known to the inventors that multimedia communication centers work with a wide variety of differing media types and in many instances tend to separate those media types into separate queues for management reasons. For example, COST calls and IPNT calls may occupy separate queues as may e-mail and other media events. In more modern IPNT-capable centers, the concept of virtual queuing has recently been implemented in systems known to the inventor, but necessarily prior art at the time of this application. Virtual queuing is a concept of tokenizing information about media events waiting in real queues and processing those events (usually mixed) from the virtual queue by priority of event and other criteria.
It has occurred to the inventors that using presence reporting between communication-center entities can change the way queue information is monitored as well as the way information in the queue is processed with regard to notification of other human and machine entities involved in the processing and with regard to planning resources.
Therefore, what is clearly needed is a method and apparatus that enables queue processing of multimedia events from a master virtual queue, such that event requirements including resources can be anticipated and aggregated if necessary early on, before event processing, for the purpose of enabling manipulation ahead of time of appropriate types of and availability of resources to most quickly process the waiting events.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention a software application for recommending workforce resource allocation in a communication center based on requirements of events represented in a communication-center queue is provided, comprising a first interface for making interface with and accessing information from the queue, a second interface for making interface with and accessing information from a data source about workforce availability and state information, a processing component for processing queue information and workforce information, and a message generation and delivery component for generating a workforce allocation recommendation based on results from processing and sending the recommendation to a target entity. The application is characterized in that the application periodically accesses the queue and the data source to obtain the most recent information for processing, and generates periodic recommendations based on real-time requirements of events and availability states of resources.
In some preferred embodiments communication-center queue is a virtual queue capable of representing multimedia events, and in some of these, represented events may include COST calls, VoIP calls, e-mails, voice-mails, video calls, session initiation events, and IMPP-based communication events.
In some embodiments the workforce includes both live agents and automated systems. Further, event requirements may include media type, requested routing destination identification, and event purpose information. In some cases the first interface includes a data network link from a server hosting the application and a server hosting the queue. Also in some cases the second interface includes a data network link from a server hosting the application and a server functioning as the data source hosting the workforce information. Further, in some cases the data source may serve information according to a presence protocol.
In some embodiments the processing component performs a comparative analysis between the queue requirements and the workforce information the results thereof used to form the recommendation. Also in some embodiments the recommendation is an IMPP-based message. Still further, the target entity may be a supervising agent responsible for workforce allocation. In other cases the target entity may be an automated system and the recommendation is a direct order to that system.
In still further embodiments of the invention there may be a third interface for making interface with and accessing data from a historical database for the purpose of generating probability statistics concerning incoming events yet to be registered into the queue, and in this case the generated probability statistics may be used to help generate recommendations. Also, the presence information may include availability information, individual agent schedule information, and resolute activity state information.
In another aspect of the invention, in a communication center environment, an automated system for generating workforce resource allocation recommendations based on requirements for queued events and current workforce presence and state parameters is provided, comprising a first server having network access to the queued events, a second server having network access to the first server and having network access to the workforce presence and state parameters, and a software application running on the first server, the application including a processing component for processing queue information and workforce information; and a message generation and delivery component for generating a workforce allocation recommendation based on results from processing and sending the recommendation to a target entity. The system is characterized in that the recommendation provides direction for allocation of resources ahead of a time when the considered events would require actual event handling.
In some embodiments of the system the communication-center queue is a virtual queue capable of representing multimedia events. Queued events may include COST calls, VoIP calls, e-mails, voice-mails, video calls, and session initiation events, and IMPP-based communication events. The workforce may include both live agents and automated systems, and current event requirements may include media type, requested destination identification, and event purpose information.
In some other embodiments of the system the workforce presence and state parameters are served by the second server according to IMPP-based messaging. In some cases the processing component performs a comparative analysis between the queue requirements and the workforce information the results thereof used to form the recommendation. The target entity may be a supervising agent responsible for workforce allocation, or an automated system and the recommendation is a direct order to that system. In some cases the presence information includes availability information, individual schedule information, and resolute activity state information.
In yet another aspect of the invention a method for anticipating resources needed for events represented in a communication-center queue is provided, comprising steps of (a) using a software application, accessing the queue to gain access to requirements and parameters of events represented therein; (b) quantifying and sorting the accessed requirements; (c) using the same software application, accessing a data source to gain access to presence and state information of center resources; (d) performing a comparative analysis of requirements against available resources; (e) generating a resource allocation recommendation based on the results of analysis; and (f) sending the recommendation to a target entity responsible for resource allocation.
In some embodiments of the method, in step (a), the software application includes a first interface for making interface with and accessing information from the queue; a second interface for making interface with and accessing information from a data source about workforce availability and state information; a processing component for processing queue information and workforce information; and a message generation and delivery component for generating a workforce allocation recommendation based on results from processing and sending the recommendation to a target entity. Also in some embodiments, in step (a), requirements and parameters include media type, requested event destination identification, event origination identification and event purpose information. In step (b) the requirements may be prioritized by pre-selected criteria. Further, in step (c) data access may be based on a push model. In further embodiments, in step (c), data access may be based on a pull model. The data source may be a server.
In further embodiments of the, in step (c), the presence and state information may include work schedules, shift change information, and resolute activity states of differing media types. Still further, in step (e), knowledge of un-allocated resources may also be incorporated in recommendation generation.
In some cases the target entity is a supervising agent. In other cases the target entity may be an automated system and the recommendation a direct order.